Insulated gloves are commonly worn in order to keep one's hands warm during exposure to cold temperatures. Insulated gloves are particularly useful to a sportsman such as a hunter since he or she often spends extended periods of time positioned in a blind or perched in a tree stand while exposed to the cold temperatures associated with a particular hunting season.
Insulated gloves which have heretofore been designed are typically constructed out of a number of layers of natural and/or synthetic fibers which insulate the user's hands from cold temperatures. Moreover, these insulated gloves may also be constructed of fibers which render the glove water resistant so as to prevent the user's hands from becoming wet if the glove comes into contact with water or other types of liquid.
In a further effort to provide insulated gloves with enhanced heating characteristics, a number of insulated gloves have heretofore been designed which include a heating mechanism for generating heat which is transferred to the user's hands. For example, some of these insulated gloves include an electric heating mechanism which is powered by a small battery such as a common nine-volt (9V) battery. Hence, such heated gloves improve on the above-described insulated gloves by providing enhanced warming capabilities since they generate additional heat which compliments the user's body heat in order to keep the user's hands warm.
However, such prior art heated gloves have a number of drawbacks associated therewith. For example, such heated gloves are relatively expensive. In particular, use of an electric heating mechanism undesirably increases costs associated with manufacture of the heated glove. Moreover, each heated glove must also be equipped with a separate battery. Hence, over the useful life of the heated gloves, the user must install a relatively large number of batteries into the gloves thereby undesirably increasing costs associated with operation of the gloves. Moreover, heated gloves which utilize an electric heating mechanism are particularly susceptible to failure. In particular, it is known that the electric heating mechanism associated with these heated gloves commonly fail or otherwise cease to operate if the heated gloves are immersed or otherwise exposed to water thereby reducing the useful life of the heated gloves. Such a susceptibility to failure is particular disadvantageous to sportsmen such as hunters since many of their activities are performed near bodies of water such as lakes and streams.
What is needed therefore is a heated insulated glove which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. What is particularly needed is a heated insulated glove which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and utilizes a relatively small number of components. What is also needed is a heated insulated glove which has a relatively long useful life. What is further needed is a heated insulated glove which does not require a battery or other stored energy source during use thereof.